Japanese minister to seniors: "Just die already, damnit"

[The Larch]

A truly enlightened politician. 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jan/22/elderly-hurry-up-die-japanese?intcmp=239

Let elderly people 'hurry up and die', says Japanese minister
Taro Aso says he would refuse end-of-life care and would 'feel bad' knowing treatment was paid for by government


Japan's new government is barely a month old, and already one of its most senior members has insulted tens of millions of voters by suggesting that the elderly are an unnecessary drain on the country's finances.

Taro Aso, the finance minister, said on Monday that the elderly should be allowed to "hurry up and die" to relieve pressure on the state to pay for their medical care.

"Heaven forbid if you are forced to live on when you want to die. I would wake up feeling increasingly bad knowing that [treatment] was all being paid for by the government," he said during a meeting of the national council on social security reforms. "The problem won't be solved unless you let them hurry up and die."

Aso's comments are likely to cause offence in Japan, where almost a quarter of the 128 million population is aged over 60. The proportion is forecast to rise to 40% over the next 50 years.

The remarks are also an unwelcome distraction for the new prime minister, Shinzo Abe, whose first period as Japan's leader ended with his resignation after just a year, in 2007, partly due to a string of gaffes by members of his cabinet.

Rising welfare costs, particularly for the elderly, were behind a decision last year to double consumption [sales] tax to 10% over the next three years, a move Aso's Liberal Democratic party supported.

The 72-year-old, who doubles as deputy prime minister, said he would refuse end-of-life care. "I don't need that kind of care," he said in comments quoted by local media, adding that he had written a note instructing his family to deny him life-prolonging medical treatment.

To compound the insult, he referred to elderly patients who are no longer able to feed themselves as "tube people". The health and welfare ministry, he added, was "well aware that it costs several tens of millions of yen" a month to treat a single patient in the final stages of life.

Cost aside, caring for the elderly is a major challenge for Japan's stretched social services. According to a report this week, the number of households receiving welfare, which include family members aged 65 or over, stood at more than 678,000, or about 40% of the total. The country is also tackling a rise in the number of people who die alone, most of whom are elderly. In 2010, 4.6 million elderly people lived alone, and the number who died at home soared 61% between 2003 and 2010, from 1,364 to 2,194, according to the bureau of social welfare and public health in Tokyo.

The government is planning to reduce welfare expenditure in its next budget, due to go into force this April, with details of the cuts expected within days.

Aso, who has a propensity for verbal blunders, later attempted to clarify his comments. He acknowledged his language had been "inappropriate" in a public forum and insisted he was talking only about his personal preference.

"I said what I personally believe, not what the end-of-life medical care system should be," he told reporters. "It is important that you be able spend the final days of your life peacefully."

It is not the first time Aso, one of Japan's wealthiest politicians, has questioned the state's duty towards its large elderly population. In 2008, while serving as prime minister, he described "doddering" pensioners as tax burdens who should take better care of their health.

"I see people aged 67 or 68 at class reunions who dodder around and are constantly going to the doctor," he said at a meeting of economists. "Why should I have to pay for people who just eat and drink and make no effort? I walk every day and do other things, but I'm paying more in taxes."

He had already angered the country's doctors by telling them they lacked common sense, made a joke about Alzheimer's patients, and pronounced "penniless young men" unfit for marriage.

In 2001, he said he wanted Japan to become the kind of successful country in which "the richest Jews would want to live".

He once likened an opposition party to the Nazis, praised Japan's colonial rule in Taiwan and, as foreign minister, told US diplomats they would never be trusted in Middle East peace negotiations because they have "blue eyes and blond hair".

While figures released on Monday showed a record 2.14 million Japanese were receiving welfare in October 2012, Aso has led a life of privilege few of his compatriots could hope to match.

He is the grandson of Shigeru Yoshida, an influential postwar prime minister, and is married to the daughter of another former premier.

While campaigning for the premiership in 2008, Aso refused to acknowledge the use of hundreds of allied prisoners of war by his family's coal mining business during the second world war. He served as president of the firm's successor, Aso Cement, from 1973-79.

[Eddie Teach]

In 2001, he said he wanted Japan to become the kind of successful country in which "the richest Jews would want to live".

Yet Count chooses to live in Harlem. 

[Razgovory]

They elected Ron Paul?

[derspiess]

They elected Ron Paul?

Or Barack Obama, take your pick. www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-dQfb8WQvo

[Razgovory]

They elected Ron Paul?

Or Barack Obama, take your pick. www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-dQfb8WQvo

Not exactly the same.  Nice try, libertarian.

[derspiess]

They elected Ron Paul?

Or Barack Obama, take your pick. www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-dQfb8WQvo

Not exactly the same.  Nice try, libertarian.

Pretty close, socialist.

[Valmy]

They elected Ron Paul?

Or Barack Obama, take your pick. www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-dQfb8WQvo

Not exactly the same.  Nice try, libertarian.

Pretty close, socialist.

I never got why right wingers were so outraged by limiting entitlements.  I guess because it involves not giving craploads of money to old people.

[derspiess]

They elected Ron Paul?

Or Barack Obama, take your pick. www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-dQfb8WQvo

Not exactly the same.  Nice try, libertarian.

Pretty close, socialist.

I never got why right wingers were so outraged by limiting entitlements.  I guess because it involves not giving craploads of money to old people.

Which right wingers?  What entitlements?

[Razgovory]

They elected Ron Paul?

Or Barack Obama, take your pick. www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-dQfb8WQvo

Not exactly the same.  Nice try, libertarian.

Pretty close, socialist.

In the same sense you live "close" to me.  Come now, the libertarian is the enemy of mankind.  He is your enemy as well as mine.  Besides, I'm not actually a socialist.  I find a lot of that stuff kinda creepy.  Sure the May Day parades with the tanks are pretty cool, but I'm still actually a capitalist.

[Admiral Yi]

I stand behind my prediction that in the not too distant future voluntary euthenasia will be seen as a patriotic act in Japan.

[Razgovory]

They elected Ron Paul?

Or Barack Obama, take your pick. www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-dQfb8WQvo

Not exactly the same.  Nice try, libertarian.

Pretty close, socialist.

In the same sense you live "close" to me.  Come now, the libertarian is the enemy of mankind.  He is your enemy as well as mine.  Besides, I'm not actually a socialist.  I find a lot of that stuff kinda creepy.  Sure the May Day parades with the tanks are pretty cool, but I'm still actually a capitalist.

For some reason, I thought Peter wiggin posted that link.   Still Derspeiss, you have to do much, much better then that.

[Eddie Teach]

You think I'm a libertarian? 

[Razgovory]

You think I'm a libertarian? 

You lean that way and are under surveillance.  The Libertarian is the enemy of humanity, he must be fought with all our power for he wishes to reduce the world to anarchy in the name of freedom, and then pick up the pieces for himself.

[Admiral Yi]

You and mongers use libertarian like the French use neocon.

[Eddie Teach]

They're not that bad. I do support Uncle Sam taking their money away to buy crack for poor people though.